1% is a Statistic. This is a Trend.

Wikimedia has just updated their web statistics. 1% share for Linux has not been seen since 2009 and there have only been three months where there has been a decrease in the share for Linux since 2009:

235 million page requests last month were from Linux systems. 161.9 million from Android/Linux for 3.36% share and 1.52% for GNU/Linux. That other OS was clinging to monopoly at 74%. In April, 2009, that other OS was at 89.5%. Times are changing.

Not many of those page requests are from China where business in PC manufacturing is booming. China is now the third largest PC market in the world and mobile PCs have just overtaken desktop PCs there. Growth of all PCs shipped in China is 26% per annum whereas growth in the rest of the world is about flat. So, change is fastest outside old markets and that other OS will no longer be a monopoly within two years, if this situation persists. People want small cheap computers and that other OS does not fit the bill.

At what point will PCs running GNU/Linux be plentiful on retail shelves in mature markets? Android/Linux has no problem selling there at about 3% share on Wikimedia, so that great day will be in two or three years at the rate things are going. Expect a huge rate of increase then and an end to monopoly on the desktop. We’ve already seen plenty of “early adopters” migrating to GNU/Linux. Next will be the masses of users of IT disgusted with “up-selling”, malware and bloat.

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About Robert Pogson

I am a retired teacher in Canada. I taught in the subject areas where I have worked for almost forty years: maths, physics, chemistry and computers. I love hunting, fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, too.

3 Responses to 1% is a Statistic. This is a Trend.

Amen, gewg_. I have read one report that iOS has slipped further in tablets as well. FLOSS is just the right way to do IT and so far M$ has not been able to corrupt the mobile market. I believe “8” won’t change that any more than Phoney “7” did.

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.